Ajanta

I had some official work in Pune. As I was to be in Pune on Thursday, we decided that we will make use of the weekend to go to some place close to Pune as we had not gone out for a tour for quite some time. We started from Bangalore early in the morning and were in Pune by about 10 AM. From the Pune Airport, we took a Pre-Paid taxi and reached Hotel Gateway, Hinjewadi. My meeting was scheduled for 2 PM. I attended my meeting and we were back in the hotel by 7 PM.

Next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel and started for our bus stop at about 11 AM. With some difficulty, we found the bus stop. We had booked our bus from Pune to Aurangabad through the Red Bus website. The bus started on time. The journey was uneventful. We watched Sultan movie during the journey. We reached Aurangabad by about 10 PM. The car from Taj had called us when we were approaching Aurangabad and he was available at the bus stop to pick us up.

We reached Taj, Aurangabad by about 11 PM. We had dinner. The normal buffet was over. So, we had to order a-la-carte. Taj Aurangabad is like a palace. We realised it next morning. We had early breakfast and booked a car to take us to Ajanta Caves. Ajanta Caves is about 110 KM from Aurangabad. The road is narrow. However, after we left the Aurangabad town, the road was relatively empty.

On reaching Ajanta Caves, we had to park the car in the parking. From the Car Parking, we had to take a Government Bus to reach the Caves.

The Ajanta Caves is hidden behind a forest on top of a hill.

On the insistence of the Palki drivers, we took a Palki for Deepshree at Ajanta Caves. We could have easily walked. However, these people have only this for a living and so we obliged. They took Rs. 1000 for Deepshree around Ajanta Caves. We also hired a Guide for Rs. 500.

Our pictures around the caves

There are about 30 caves here. We went upto Cave number 19. Some of the caves are big and some are small.